CommitStrip - Rise of the Coders: Review

CommitStrip is a website that shares anecdotes of life as a coder through cleverly crafted idiosyncratic comic strips. A huge fanbase inspired them to launch a physical book through a Kickstarter campaign during October 2016. I backed the campaign for 34$ (including shipping). The project got successfully funded with an amount of €166,720. Since they completed two of their Kickstarter stretch goals, €30,000 and €100,000 respectively; All backers who bought a book also received an original CommitStrip poster (size: A2), a thank you card, and a couple of stickers. The book is printed in two languages, English & French and backers got to chose the language in which they will receive the book. The comics cleverly reflects upon the lives of coders, programmers, developers and anyone involved in code. The triumphs, the failures, the strokes of genius and the absurdities of coders are skillfully portrayed with a stroke of sarcasm and humour.

Here are some of the comic strips from the book

A parody newspaper from the "CommitStrip" universe, "The Daily Coder" was also a part of my pledge and it perfectly compliments the book.

Comic book style

Although a larger audience for these comics are programmers/coders, someone with even a moderate level of tech awareness would understand most of the jokes, the context, and the sarcasm.

Interviews

The book also features interviews from some of the famous developers/CEOs and their favourite comic strips from the website.

The Book features a 10-page comic story, all in black and white. It is definitely one of my most liked features of the book and the less I speak about it, the better. (No Spoilers Here!)

Since this book lacks a bookmark, having one would have embraced its physicality. I liked the idea of not having an index / Table of contents as I wanted to be surprised every single time I turn a page. The Endpapers (both, at the beginning and at the end of the book) are illustrated with a collage of some of the characters from the book, and some impersonation of characters from South Park and other famous cartoons like the oatmeal. One interesting thing that the team could have done with end-papers is that they could have made slight changes in both of them. A "spot the differences" game would have been a nice hidden/secret feature of the book.

Delivery, Customs & Duties

Once the project got funded, the CommitStrip team kept us updated on the status of printing, packaging and logistics through their Social Media Profiles and Kickstarter Updates.

The team decided to manage the backer information like address, phone numbers and language preferences through surveys from Backerkit. Right before the books were ready to be dispatched, all the campaign backers received an email through Backerkit requesting all the necessary information required for books to be delivered. Before each order was dispatched, all the backers again received an email confirming the details they had filled in. The process of adding and managing the backer details was done very systematically. All the backers also got an option to make an additional payment and upgrade their pledge (in case if they wanted to).

Since the book was shipped during the festive season, some of the packages were delayed and a few of them were lost. The CommitStrip team gave a deadline of 12th January 2017 for receiving the parcels. Unfortunately, my package was not delivered till 17th and I contacted the team for a replacement package to be shipped. Also, for those who had received the parcels damaged, a replacement package was arranged for them. Such an honest and humble response from the team.

My replacement package arrived during Mid-February and the packaging was flawless. Like all of my International books, the customs and duties I paid were zero.

Sometimes some of the best possible solutions could be inspired during a constructive "offscreen" activity. One of such could be reading a comic book on lives of people you connect most of your life with. So, I would recommend this book as a part of every developer's/coder's bookshelf/workspace. It would be one of the best ways to "rejuvenate" themselves during their "offscreen" time.